Environmental Sustainability and The Castle

Up-to-date information on implementing the Environmental Policy for The Castle Climbing Centre

Thursday, 18 July 2013

Castle to Castle (London to Budapest)

Blog 3

We're in Bonn at the moment (16th) so here's
our post for the last few days.

Monday 15th
July

Brussels-Aachen: Time cycling - 7 hours.Distance - 132km

After having spent two days with little sleep, our hostel
beds were perfect and woke up feeling recharged and excited for the day. We’d
learnt something from our previous mistakes, so before we left Brussels we
booked a campsite in Aachen. Giving us both somewhere to aim for and a definite
place to sleep.

We left at 9.30am and enjoyed a walk through the
picturesque centre. Since we’d had so much trouble navigating through cities,
our new method was to use the sun as our guide. Keeping the sun at a fixed
point.

Talking about navigation, we have settled on using the Google
maps function on our IPhones. In particular we love the walking function, which
has allowed us to take back roads and cycle paths that we would never have
found without it! We have nicknamed him Chris the walking man.

We cycled through beautiful Belgian countryside, stopping
to pick cherries by the road side. Other cyclists joined us for short periods
of the way, always interested in what we were doing and our progress.

It is becoming a common trend for people to come to our
rescue in times of trouble and we were grateful to a girl for directing us to the
hostel and a cyclist showing us the way a great deal.

Germany

In our drive for sustainability we took a solar charger
with us... its crap. Our method now is to stop for a coffee and charge when we
need it.

Today we cycled through 3 countries, starting in Belgium,
then without realising it, through Holland, and into Germany.

We arrived into Aachen late that night and had to pitch our
tents in the dark. We did have the foresight to pick up a whole roast chicken
and a beer and devoured the lot before crawling into our tents.

Tuesday 16th

Aachen to Bonn:
Time cycling - a "rest" day. Distance - 96km

Having worked hard for 3 days we decided to set a more
relaxed pace today. Both of us felt a little achy this morning, so getting
going was slow. Also Zoltans incredible navigation might have added a few extra
km to the day.....

*A little aside about how we have progressed day by day.
A few days ago I think we were both coming to question whether we could really
cycle like this every day. However day by day we seem to be adapting, getting
fitter as we go and today we really hit our stride. We can do this!

Sunburn - with wings!

So, it was another really hot day’s cycling but the good
news is, for the first time we got into the campsite early. And what a
beautiful camp site it was! Right on the banks of the Rhine.

Even Zoltan agreed that the scenery was
"alright", which in Zoltans language actually means incredible.

After pitching our tents and having a wash, we went for
our first hot meal in 4 days. A kebab each and a pizza to share, great!

Stretching

We had a good day today and tomorrow (17th)
we’re heading for Frankfurt.

Wednesday, 17 July 2013

Castle to Castle (London to Budapest)

Blog 2

Fri 12th

So this day found us in a mad rush to get everything
ready. It also found Zoltan at the Hungarian embassy waiting for his emergency
passport. A story still too raw to go into suffice to say Zoltan and I are still
friends. So having packed and had a couple of good luck drinks at the
Brownswood, we were set.

Sat 13th

Time cycling - 8 hours. Distance - 160km

After three hours sleep apiece we left The Castle at 5am.
Cycling for the first time with fully loaded panniers, something that took a
little getting used to. I think I can say for both of us that we were both
excited but also apprehensive, the full scale of what we had undertaken running
through our minds. Following our planned route out of London we made steady
progress and were soon nearing Dover. It did however prove to be a hard day for
both of us, both hot and long. We did however make it to our ferry in time and
lying on the sunny deck and sleeping for a couple hours was reward enough.

Getting off the ferry at Dunkirk, a first oversight began
to become apparent. We had not really paid much attention to navigation,
relying on some very vague printed Google maps. So getting into the centre of
Dunkirk proved tricky. And therefore the only two campsites that we made it to.
We ended the first night wearing all our clothes sleeping rough on the beach,
too tired to bother with tents. Our first and second lessons all in one day...

1. Have some form of navigation!

2. Have a rough idea of where you will sleep, or better a
solid booking.

Sunday 14th

Time cycling - 8 hours. Distance - 150kmWe awoke to a beautiful sunrise having had three very
cold hours sleep. So 6 hours in two days and only 150km to cycle today!

(Zoltan tells me I'm putting a negative spin on this
trip, please don't get me wrong we are LOVING it.)

We dragged ourselves off the beach, packed up and I
realised I had lost my wallet. Shit.

Incredibly cycling back to the previous days unfriendly
campsite we got my wallet back. No sweat.

So our first full on day of cycling. We thought this was
going to be an easy day. It was hard and hot and we got lost quite a lot. Yet
sitting in our hostel washed, fed and talced up we both agree that we have
enjoyed it and achieved something.

About today we wanted to mention the glittery sun cream
given to me by my friends from the café and The incredibly bad French road signs
which led us round in circles. We have seen some beautiful countryside and
thoroughly enjoyed the day. Signing off now as we have an early start. We will
write when we can.